Categories

Some PHP scripts and apps require the Zend Guard Loader or Zend Optimizer to be able to run, as their code has been encoded either to obfuscate reverse-engineering or to be licensed.

Normally, to install and use Zend Guard Loader or Zend Optimizer (to decode obfuscated PHP code, or run licensed scripts) you would need to: locate and download the proper package, match it to your PHP version and build type, and configure php.ini to set up and load the extension. Otherwise, an error message similar to “Zend Optimizer | Zend Guard Loader not loaded or installed” will be shown, such as this one:

PHP extension “Zend Optimizer” or “Zend Guard Loader” is not loaded. The required run-time support is not installed or properly configured to run PHP scripts encoded by Zend Encoder and Zend Guard.

Installing and enabling Zend Guard Loader and Zend Optimizer is made easy with WampDeveloper Pro, which includes the last good version of each Loader, their full configuration, and their matching PHP versions and types:

Zend Guard Loader for PHP 5.4 and 5.3 FCGI.

Zend Optimizer (Loader) for PHP 5.2 Regular.

Zend Guard Loader for PHP 5.4 and 5.3 FCGI

The last version of Zend Guard Loader released was v3.3, and it was released for PHP 5.4 and 5.3 FCGI only (e.g., there is no “Thread Safe” build for regular PHP).

1. In WampDeveloper’s Components Tab, click the link to download the latest PHP 5.4 or 5.3 FCGI version, and extract the ZIP into folder:
C:\WamDeveloper\Versions\Php\

Near the bottom, find section “[ZendGuardLoader]“, un-comment it as such:

[ZendGaurdLoader]
; ONLY PROVIDED UNDER PHP-FCGI
; MUST BE LOADED AFTER Ioncube, AND BEFORE XDebug
zend_extension="C:\WampDeveloper\Components\Php\ext\ZendLoader.dll"
zend_loader.enable=1
zend_loader.obfuscation_level_support=3
zend_loader.license_path=

Near the bottom, find section "[Zend Optimizer]", it should already be un-commented as such:

[Zend Optimizer]
; this will make Apache crash/unstable if used with APC
zend_extension_ts="C:\WampDeveloper\Components\Php\ext\ZendOptimizer.dll"
zend_optimizer.optimization_level=0
zend_optimizer.enable_loader=1

Update: Zend Guard Loader for PHP 5.5 and 5.6, 32 bit and 64 bit

The instructions are the same as above, you just need to download the newer version of Zend Guard Loader and match it to its build / PHP version, type, bits.

Note that you can only run a encoded script under the same Zend Guard Loader and PHP version it was encoded for... You are not going to be able to run a Zend Guard Loader 3.3 + PHP 5.3 script under Zend Guard Loader 7.0 + PHP 5.6.